Over eighty percent of the population will experience some type of reaction to their skin as a result of being exposed to Ultra Violet (UV) rays, such as UVA, UVB, and UVC rays. Such skin damage is photochemical in nature and is directly associated with high energy, short wavelength radiation. The end result is an undesirable biological change, such as inflammation and mutations to the DNA.
The use of photochromic dyes that illuminate with a wavelength between 200 nm and 600 nm serve as indicators to the public alerting them of their exposure to Ultra Violet rays.
The current manufacturing processes of photochromic dyes result in residual amounts of carcinogens remaining in, and on, these materials. By re-defining the manufacturing process, this disclosure provides a process to remove these carcinogens without altering chemical structure or function of the dyes.
These manufacturing processes are common throughout the industry for those companies manufacturing photochromic dyes. These photochromic dyes were not originally intended to be applied to human skin. Subsequently, there was no need to remove the affected carcinogens because the dyes and inks were used in other mediums (i.e. plastics, paper, t-shirts, and other novelty items).